A Trip to Utah
Business trips are always most enjoyable when I can squeeze in a little time to learn about the wonderful places I visit.
Last weekend, I traveled to northern Utah to attend the 17th annual ChefDance. The multiple-day affair coincides with the famous Sundance Film Festival and invites chefs and other culinary experts to celebrate food and culture. I also hosted a lovely brunch at the home of ChefDance Founder, Mimi Kim and her husband, Kenny Griswold, and enjoyed a stay at The Lodge at Blue Sky, a 3500-acre contemporary ranch destination in Wanship. While there, I visited their Saving Gracie Equine Healing Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving the lives of horses through rescue, sanctuary, and medical care, and saw some of the most amazing views of the Wasatch and Uinta mountains.
Enjoy my photos.
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- A good business trip always starts with a good meal. If you follow me on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 you may have seen this – a flavorful lunch of smoked salmon, bagels, caviar, eggs from my wonderful hens, and greens from my garden.
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- My friend, Kira Faiman, wore this bright pink jacket on the trip. She looks great in it, and certainly can’t get lost on a mountain.
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- Once we landed, we drove about an hour from the Heber Valley Airport in Heber City to The Lodge at Blue Sky. On the way, I took photos of the gorgeous views. The Lodge sits on 3500-acres of beautiful, undisturbed landscape.
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- I love the fencing that surrounds the many paddocks on the property.
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- This is Mike Phillips – he and his wife, Barb, are the owners of The Lodge at Blue Sky, which offers 46-rooms in three different styles, western-inspired adventures, farm-to-table cuisine, a cliffside wellness sanctuary, and the High West Whiskey Distillery, where guests can learn the distillation process from grain to glass.
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- In our rooms, we found tasty trays of treats including Peruvian corn sourdough bread, ricotta, honey, herbed butter, and mixed berry jam – all prepared for us by the James Beard award-winning executive chef, Galen Zamarra, and his team. Chef Galen helms Yuta, the resort’s restaurant, which focuses on using sustainably sourced seasonal heirloom ingredients for all their dishes. Yuta’s menu draws inspiration from a deep reverence for the land and the many cultures that share this mountainous region.
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- The Edge Spa at Blue Sky is a very relaxing wellness sanctuary, where we enjoyed massages during our stay. The Spa is named for its location perched on the side of a dramatic precipice overlooking Alexander Creek.
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- I admired the walls, which were constructed with wood frames, not metal. Once the concrete dried and the wood frames were removed, this beautiful faux-bois grain remained – so pretty.
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- The next morning, we drove to the home of Mimi Kim and her husband, Kenny Griswold, where I hosted a special brunch for our partners at Postmates. Mimi is the founder of ChefDance. This year, ChefDance celebrated its 17th year as the “biggest culinary feast” during the Sundance Film Festival – what started as a novel idea has since become the most sought after ticket during Sundance.
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- Here I am with Heather Kirkland, former General Counsel of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Billy Stern, former MSLO CFO Howard Hochhauser, and Hannah Milman. Howard is now the COO of the world’s largest genealogy company, Ancestry.
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- We had some delicious fresh juices at my brunch including orange, grapefruit and of course, my favorite – green juice.
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- Our bartender, Matt Biancaniello, was excellent. I loved all his cocktails. Here we are enjoying glasses of his drink, “Priceless” – it’s made with champagne, Aperol, blood orange juice with a saffron-infused Saint Germain foam, and pomegranate seeds on the bottom.
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- This is my favorite. Matt did not have a name for it because he made it on the spot, but it has rhubarb-infused Saint Germain, white guava-infused vodka, kaffir, lime leaves, calamondin, yuzu, Meyer lemon, lime, and agave with white borage on top.
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- Here I am with Eric Edge, SVP, Marketing and Communications at Postmates.
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- And here, I am joined by Nancy Shimizu and Melissa Henshaw, both from Nestle.
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- Do you know these gentlemen? They are Ross Butler and Justin Prentice from the Netflix series, “13 Reasons Why.”
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- The same night, I attended the ChefDance Dinner. Here I am with Mimi and Chef Melissa Perello, best known for holding a Michelin star at her San Francisco restaurant, Frances. And guess what? She is from my hometown of Nutley, New Jersey. Mimi presented me with the ChefDance “Living Legend” award on this night.
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- On the way back to The Lodge at Blue Sky, we passed some of the animals from Saving Gracie Equine Healing Foundation and Gracie’s Farm. As part of The Lodge, Barb founded a rescue that is dedicated to helping neglected, abused and abandoned animals. The animals now live on the expansive property and are given the care they need and deserve.
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- We visited the 30-thousand square-foot riding arena where we met Gracie, for which the Saving Gracie Equine Healing Foundation is named. Her story: in 2013, Barb discovered a nearby ranch that was neglecting its animals. Each day, Barb would take them food and water, and care for them over the fence. Barb developed a profound connection with one horse in particular, whom she visited every day. The horse was declining quickly, so she decided to intervene. She took the horse under her care, vowing she would care for her the rest of her life. She named her Gracie, feeling that it was a “Saving Grace” that she was able to rescue this special creature. Gracie now lives at The Lodge with the other rescues.
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- I am standing under the “Solarium”, a light therapy machine which helps improve circulation. The Lodge at Blue Sky is the only luxury guest ranch in North America that employs a full-time on-site vet to ensure that their special animals get the best care and attention.
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- The tack room was very neat and tidy – all the chaps and saddles in place.
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- On this wall are the bridles and harnesses.
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- And look what I saw – a hook labeled “Snoop” – I just had to meet this horse.
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- Here I am with “Snoop” who was rescued a couple of years ago.
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- And here I am with Barb and “Snoop.”
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- This is the High West Whiskey Distillery, a 25-thousand square-foot state-of-the-art facility, complete with a built-to-order Scottish Forsythe copper pot still – also part of The Lodge.
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- On our way to the airport after our short trip, I took more photos of the stunning mountain views.
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- The Wasatch Range is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about 160-miles from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Great Basin region.
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- I just love the mountain reflections in the lakes and reservoirs.
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- This is part of Bridal Veil Falls – a 607-foot-tall double cataract waterfall in the south end of Provo Canyon.
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- Mount Timpanogos, often referred to by local residents as “Timp,” is the second-highest mountain in Utah’s Wasatch Range.
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- This view is just spectacular – taken with my iPhone 11 Pro Max. If you’re ever in Northern Utah, take some time to visit this area. The Lodge at Blue Sky is a wonderful place to stay and the views are breathtaking.
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